“What to do? Remain calm. Nothing is under control. Not by you. Not by me. I’ve tried shouting from the rooftops. I’ve described the horrors of abrupt climate change since my earliest essays…

“Thousands . . . . There was a time when my obsessive-compulsive impulses had me determined to get one of every kind; fortunately, my obsession expired before my financial resources.”—William A. Balk, Jr.…

“It was wonderful. I know. I get it. It shouldn’t have been wonderful, but it was. Somehow, the depression that had clouded my days lifted, and my spirits were full of laughter and…

“Mansfield’s note, then, speaks of more than the universal love triangle. It also sounds out from the now-silent world of the early 20s in Europe and urban America; one in which moral, class…

“Mademoiselle—I never knew her last name—was a Romanian refugee, a member of the royal family and, we were told, a princess. There were many royals in Romania until the last king, Michael, was…

“As the temperatures climbed back into the 90s following the recent eclipse, I was struck by the fact that the entire enterprise is riding on loose rock. I walked off testing the ground…

“Write what you know, my first teachers suggested. But I have never been a big fan of reality. Reality feels like sandpaper on my skin. Sometimes I think I would love to escape…

“I did the thing one should not do, and anthropomorphized them, but only until I understood that it was a rare human being who displayed the brand of determination, which we call ‘heart,’…

“With me propped up on the sofa, legs stretched out on pillows, and Adrian perched on a miniature chair from Skyros, he began to probe my left foot. And as he did, vivid memories…

“The vision of spending my days and nights rehearsing with beautiful, graceful dancers, rather than unwashed, oafish musicians in yellow-collared tux shirts, seemed infinitely more appealing. I mean, after all, I had just…